Tissue occlusion to prevent leakage of body fluids (blood, tissue fluids and the like) caused by tissue damage have major significance in clinical situations, including surgery. Effectively inhibiting body fluid leakage from damage sites is associated with improved life support during surgery and improved post-surgical quality of life (QOL).
Hemostasis is considered clinically important for the following reasons.
1. Blood loss is a major cause of death, with causes of blood loss including serious trauma, aneurysm, esophageal and gastric ulcers, and esophageal varix rupture. Probability of death is high when hemorrhage cannot be immediately arrested.
2. Hemorrhage during surgery is a major concern, since hemorrhage can lead to systemic infection or organ dysfunction. Hemorrhage not only interferes with the object of surgery, but removal of hemorrhaged blood is also a delaying factor in surgery.
3. Hemorrhage is also a problem with minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic surgery and the like), and switching to incisive surgery may be necessary when hemorrhage cannot be sufficiently prevented.
The following methods exist for hemostasis.
1. Methods of directly compressing the blood vessels at the site of hemorrhage (astriction). The drawback to this method is that time and effort are required to maintain pressure, while the patient is also at risk of hematoma.
2. Other methods of arresting hemorrhage by physical means, such as methods of clamping or clipping near the site of hemorrhage, or methods of placing a plug or sponge on the site of hemorrhage. The drawback to these hemorrhage arresting methods is difficulty of management when the hemorrhaging is from numerous microvessels.
3. Methods of clotting the blood by heat and cauterizing the hemorrhaging blood vessel (electrocautery). The drawback of such methods is that the surrounding tissue is subjected to thermal injury and the patient undergoes increased invasion, while the medical instruments used require expert skill (the method cannot be used outside of a medical institution).
The following agents exist for hemostasis.
1. Alginic acid
2. Gelatin sponges
3. Collagen fibers
4. Fibrin paste
Collagen fibers and fibrin paste are often clinically used as effective hemorrhage arresting materials, but their drawbacks include the fact that (1) gelatin and collagen fibers are animal collagen and fibrin paste is an animal-derived product obtained using a blood preparation and bovine thrombin, and therefore the risk of infection exists, and (2) they are non-transparent and therefore interfere at the site of surgery.
Heparinemia may sometimes be induced, wherein the blood clotting function of the patient is artificially reduced during surgery. Heparin is used to suppress blood clotting during surgery when using an artificial heart-lung machine. An artificial heart-lung machine is foreign to the body, and when blood is circulated through the artificial heart-lung machine the blood immediately coagulates and clogs the circuit, so that administration of heparin into the blood is essential before extracorporeal circulation.
Collagen fibers and fibrin paste utilize the blood clotting system of the body for hemostasis, and therefore have a lower hemostatic effect for heparinemia. A lower hemostatic effect tends to lead to greater hemorrhage and thus increased need for blood transfusion, while a longer time is also required for complete hemostasis when extracorporeal circulation is terminated. Thus, a hemorrhage arresting material has been desired that does not have lower performance with heparinemia and that does not utilize blood clotting.
Blood vessel suture is necessary not only for cardiac and vascular surgery, but also for general intraperitoneal surgery. Since a small amount of blood leakage occurs from blood vessel sutures following operation, a hemorrhage arresting material with a persistent suppressing effect is desired.
Biliary or pancreatic fistula is a symptom wherein leakage of bile or pancreatic fluid due to biliary system surgery or pancreatitis or pancreatic surgery adversely affects other organs. Currently, no substance is known that effectively inhibits leakage of bile or pancreatic fluid and is clinically applicable, and therefore a method for safely and effectively preventing biliary and pancreatic fistula is desired.
Also, leakage of air in the lungs is known as a symptom of spontaneous pneumothorax involving rupture of the alveolar cyst, or traumatic pneumothorax occurring with rib fracture or catheter paracentesis. Depending on the symptoms it may be necessary to wait for natural healing, and a method of simply providing an upper layer on the affected area and adhering it to the lung tissue to occlude the cyst hole is considered a simple and highly safe method for treatment of pneumothorax.
Techniques for endoscopic excision of lesions continue to be developed with advances in endoscope technology. In particular, surgical methods are being established for endoscopic excision of lesions of polyps or early-stage cancer in the gastrointestinal tract, including the esophagus, stomach and intestines (superficial cancer believed to be without lymph node metastasis). In endoscopic demucosation, hypertonic saline or the like is usually injected into the submucous layer including the lesion site to swell the lesion site, and the excision site is held while excising the tissue containing the lesion site by electrocautery, for example.
In this technique, a solution such as hypertonic saline is injected into the submucous layer to separate the lesion site from the proper muscle layer, but low-viscosity solutions such as saline cannot maintain lesion site swelling during surgery, and therefore an infusion solution that allows swelling of affected areas to be maintained during the course of surgery is desired.
Methods of suppressing hemorrhage from lesion excision sites by injection of a vasoconstrictor such as thrombin through a catheter are also employed, but no effective measures for complete hemostasis have been established, and therefore a method for rapidly stopping post-excision hemorrhage is also desired.
Advances in catheter treatments have led to establishment of surgical methods for killing tumors or myomas by occlusion of the arteries flowing into lesion sites, that control the blood flow to the tumors and myomas. Specifically, these include hepatic artery occlusion, uterine artery occlusion and cerebral artery occlusion.
In such techniques, collagen extracted from a heterogeneous animal, or a liquid such as ethylene-vinyl alcohol, is infused for occlusion of the artery, but this raises concerns regarding risk of infection and toxicity. The development of an infusion solution with no risk of infection and low toxicity is therefore desired.
An infusion solution that may contain an added anticancer agent or contrast agent is also desired.
Self-assembling peptides have a property whereby the peptide molecules form regularly arranged self-assemblies according to their amino acid sequence. In recent years, these have attracted much attention as novel materials because of their physical, chemical and biological properties.
Self-assembling peptides have an alternating structure of electrically charged hydrophilic amino acids and electrically neutral hydrophobic amino acids, and alternating distribution of positive charge and negative charge, whereby they adopt a β-structure at physiological pH and salt concentration.
Hydrophilic amino acids that can be used include acidic amino acids such as aspartic acid and glutamic acid, and basic amino acids such as arginine, lysine, histidine and ornithine. As hydrophobic amino acids there may be used alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, serine, threonine or glycine.
The self-assembly of such peptides occurs under the following conditions.
(1) The peptide molecules adopt a β-structure in aqueous solution, wherein the charged hydrophilic amino acids and electrically neutral hydrophobic amino acids are maldistributed on the two sides of the peptide molecules.
(2) The β-structure results in a complementary electrical distribution between adjacent molecules.
(3) The β-structure leads to sufficient hydrophobic bonding between adjacent molecules.
(4) The electrical charge of the amino acid side chains is screened by monovalent inorganic salts.
(5) The molecules are electrostatically neutral near the isoelectric point of the peptide.
It is believed that self-assembly occurs by the following mechanism when these conditions are all satisfied.
(1) The alternating distribution of positive charge and negative charge in the peptide molecules causes attraction between the molecules.
(2) Hydrophobic bonds are formed between the neutral amino acid side chains of adjacent molecules.
(3) The positive/negative electrical distribution results in complementary alignment between adjacent molecules, and associative force between the molecules is strengthened.
(4) The molecular aggregates gradually extend, forming nano fibers.
The nanofibers are superfine fibers with thicknesses of about 10 nm-20 nm, and it has been reported that they aggregate to form meshwork and exhibit a macroscopically gel-like form.
The gel network structure strongly resembles a natural extracellular matrix (ECM) in terms of its fiber size and pore size, and its use as a scaffold for cell culture is being studied.
Since the peptide hydrogel is biodegradable and its decomposition product does not adversely affect tissue, while it is also highly bioabsorbable, it is suitable for cellular engraftment and growth.
Because self-assembling peptides are chemical synthetic products obtained by solid phase synthesis and do not carry the risk of animal-derived infectious disease, they are even more promising as substitutes for collagen and the like, given concerns in recent years regarding animal viruses and other unknown infectious agents, such as mad cow disease.
The application of self-assembling peptides for hemostasis is indicated in Patent document 1, but the video showing hemostasis at a hepatic incision site, provided in an article cited in the examples thereof, shows persistent blood leakage from the end of the incision site, and the reported complete hemostasis was not achieved. It is conjectured that the reason for incomplete hemostasis was insufficient adhesion between the self-assembling peptide gel and the tissue. Thus, further improvement is necessary to take advantage of the hemostatic effect of self-assembling peptides to a level allowing their clinical application.    [Patent document 1] International Patent Publication No. WO2006-116524